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1) Have a drink or two (not ten) first, and then ditch the scripted speech. Just speak freely, mentioning some thigns you might remember, and try to keep your attention on the bridge and groom. Ditch the microphone, which seems to always make it worse for people with anxiety about speaking.

OR

2) When you walk up to give your speech, begin by admitting that you suck at public speaking. Start by making fun of yourself, which breaks the ice, calms you down, and calms everyone else's nerves. Just start with "Okay look I'm terrible at speaking in front of large crowds so I'm going to read from this piece of paper. Regardless, I'll still manage to screw this up somehow. So first things first, let's all raise our glasses and have a drink in honor of the bride and groom...and in hopes that the alcohol will make this trainwreck of a speech a bit more bearable for us all."

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I've been told several useful things actually: focus on your friends in the audience. Just imagine you're speaking to them and nobody else is in the room. And, everyone wants to love you - they're not there to tear apart your speech, so relax and let them love you.

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I've been told several useful things actually: focus on your friends in the audience. Just imagine you're speaking to them and nobody else is in the room. And, everyone wants to love you - they're not there to tear apart your speech, so relax and let them love you.

Definitely agree with those points. If for whatever reason you start to get really nervous or feel it slipping away from you just stop in the middle and say "See I told you this would be a trainwreck. There's a bunch of other stuff left written on this paper but all it boils down to is that I couldn't be happier for you right now and if you ever think you've hit a rough patch in your marriage, just remember, it can't possibly be as rough as this speech."